852.00/3812: Telegram
The Third Secretary of Embassy in Spain (Wendelin) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received November 19—3:45 p.m.]
X–326. Note from Ministry of State dated at Valencia November 13 just received refers to note verbale of August 20 reported in my telegram No. X–79, August 21, 8 p.m., and requests in confirmation and clarification thereinto that I inform my Government as follows:
“Because a zone of war is declared in all Spanish ports of the peninsula, place of sovereignty (Plazas de Soberangu i. e. Ceuta and Melilla), and the protectorate zone in Morocco, and the colonies of Rio de Janeiro, Ifni and Guinea continental and insular, the Government of the Republic has ordered that no vessel may enter the said ports or territorial waters without its prior authorization. This measure, which it considers indispensable for the most rapid reestablishment of legal normality, includes Spanish as well as foreign vessels, and seeks to protect them, insofar as possible, from the risks which [Page 765] military operations might cause them, and the responsibility for which the Spanish Government considers itself relieved by these modifications until the end of the war caused by the military revolt.”